Marc Goldwein: A Way Forward on Unemployment Benefits
Marc Goldwein is senior vice president and senior policy director of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. He recently wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post, an excerpt of which is below.
Here’s a remarkable economic statistic — between February and May of this year, disposable income rose in the United States by 5.4 percent. That’s tremendous growth in good times, but especially impressive considering it coincided with a global pandemic and deep recession that caused roughly 20 million people to lose their jobs.
This income growth is a testament to the swift action by Congress, the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve in response to the pandemic. We can thank in particular the expansion of unemployment benefits to cover more out-of-work Americans and provide an additional $600 per week on top of traditional benefits. (The $1,200 per person stimulus checks helped, too.)
Read the entire piece here.
"My Views" are works published by members or staff of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, but they do not necessarily reflect the views of all members or staff of the Committee.
